he is my favorite bowler, he bowls better than rubel+shafiul combined together. he's better player than razzak and shakib (combo), i hope to see shahadat in aciton, shahadat play well under ashraful as ash always pumps him up. i miss ashraful_shahadat combo, shakib hardly gives motivation, remember everybody is not ashraful. There is only one ashraful and I assure you, right now he's not even in the bench.

When bowling coach Ian Pont arrived in Dhaka during September, he had one part of a mission. That was to find someone with the attributes to be a genuine pace bowler at the highest level. So step forward Kazi Shahadat Hossain, the tall, well built, grunting paceman, with a big heart and many of the attributes Pont is looking for. Yet Shahadat is already an experienced operator at just 24 years of age with 29 Test matches and 46 ODIs under his belt. But Pont has seen that Shahadat has something different. “Shahadat reminds me of Stuart Broad’” said Englishman Pont. “He is tall and is someone who gives 100 per cent effort. That desire to bowl fast is what it’s all about.” Shahadat has been in the preliminary Zimbabwe squad training camp taking place at the Mirpur stadium. And in one or two practices his pace has been up higher. “We did an ABSAT speed session for two days of that camp with all the pace bowlers. Understanding what you are doing and need to do to increase your speed is important if you want to bowl faster. Shahadat is starting to get that.”
At 6 foot 3 inches, he is the tallest of the quicks available to Pont at this time. And it is his height and aggression that Pont is impressed with. “On Bangladesh pitches that are slow and low, you need to be able to swing the ball and have a big heart to keep running in.
If he can produce results here then he can produce anywhere. It is just then down to being consistent and focusing on the basics of hitting his length hard and not floating the ball. Be aggressive, bowl hard into the pitch and keep running in. The rewards will come.”
Shahadat’s action has been technically assessed by Pont and the two have discussed the areas the bowler needs to work. Completing his action and maintaining a locked front leg on bowling have been identified as the parts for improvement. Those changes have started taking place and the results are already improved speed. “It’s never easy to ask a bowler to try things in the middle of a season and expect them to start working immediately. All these things take time.
However, I have been really pleased with Shahadat’s attitude towards the work. If I can get enough access to all the fast bowlers for this type of work then Bangladesh national team and the clubs they play for, will all benefit.” Pont, who has worked with Shoaib Akthar and world number one Dale Steyn, knows what it takes to develop international pacers. The one thing that can make a difference is a passion for pace.
“If there is nothing in your heart, it doesn’t matter what is in your head,” added Pont. “Shahadat has a love for fast bowling and I like that. I am here to help him and anyone else that truly wants to be world class. As long as the bowlers give me their best efforts in training and mentally, then we will see improvements. This isn’t rocket science. But you do have to know how what the sequences are to learning. And that’s where I come in for all the squad bowlers.”
Pont notes that Bangladesh, like neighbours India, cannot find the formula to produce a line of pace bowlers. It’s part of the reason Pont was attracted to coaching in the sub-continent. And like India, he feels that teaching raw speed is not something widely known in this region. “You have to understand how the action works first before you can teach what to do to maximise pace. If the coaches are not teaching this then it is just luck whether fast bowlers come through. The truth is you can create them.”
Pont continued, “whether Bangladesh can have the likes of Rubel, Shafiul and Shahadat bowling real pace in time for the World Cup is really down to the players themselves. I told everyone - including Mash, Nazmul and Rasel - that any uplift in speed is good because things happen faster and the batter has less time. I believe there is no reason why we cannot have 3 or 4 of these bowlers offering pace options to the selectors. The pitches here may end up selecting the team on match day, but my job is to give the head coach and captain a headache in who to leave out. We are already seeing smarter bowling with slower balls, yorkers and greater control. If we can see quicker bowling too, we create an attack that will succeed outside of Bangladesh, too.”

If he can produce results here then he can produce anywhere. It is just then down to being consistent and focusing on the basics of hitting his length hard and not floating the ball. Be aggressive, bowl hard into the pitch and keep running in. The rewards will come.”
Shahadat’s action has been technically assessed by Pont and the two have discussed the areas the bowler needs to work. Completing his action and maintaining a locked front leg on bowling have been identified as the parts for improvement. Those changes have started taking place and the results are already improved speed. “It’s never easy to ask a bowler to try things in the middle of a season and expect them to start working immediately. All these things take time.
However, I have been really pleased with Shahadat’s attitude towards the work. If I can get enough access to all the fast bowlers for this type of work then Bangladesh national team and the clubs they play for, will all benefit.” Pont, who has worked with Shoaib Akthar and world number one Dale Steyn, knows what it takes to develop international pacers. The one thing that can make a difference is a passion for pace.“If there is nothing in your heart, it doesn’t matter what is in your head,” added Pont. “Shahadat has a love for fast bowling and I like that. I am here to help him and anyone else that truly wants to be world class. As long as the bowlers give me their best efforts in training and mentally, then we will see improvements. This isn’t rocket science. But you do have to know how what the sequences are to learning. And that’s where I come in for all the squad bowlers.”
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Absolutely spot on. I like the bit him mentioning not floating the ball but hitting the length/deck hard. I mentioned this long time ago about Shahadat collapsing in his delivery stride, hence, losing all the momentum and height advantage.

Shahadat definitely has heart what the coach is asking for but he needs strong descipline and work ethics to become the potent FAST bowler that he should be. Sometimes I feel Rubel lacks self-belief and the "heart" but he is still young. Hopefully, Rubel, Shahadat, Mash, Shafi and Co will come good under the guidance of Pont. All the best to the bowlers and coach!

Yea really nice article, can't wait to see the bowlers and the improvements. Pont is very intelligent and can really bring out the best of someone, here's praying shahdat can bowl some really good pace because that's all he's missing.Posted via BC Mobile Edition

__________________12.6 Syed Rasel to Sangakkara, OUT: What a delivery, completely fooled Sangakkara, first five delivery were the outswingers and now, this one comes in sharply, Sangakkara tries to left it and ball hits the off stump, top class bowling!

Just wondering, should Shahadat be persisted with? I've seen him bowl, and despite way too many boundary balls, he does create wicket taking opportunities with his bouncers especially. Should stick with him as a wicket taking option perhaps?

We can use Shahadat Hossain like Sri Lanka uses Dilhara Fernando-an impact bowler who will go for runs but also pick up wickets. But for such a role Shahadat is about 5-7 kph short. Currently he is bowling around 133-135 kph. This is gentle comfortable pace. If he can increase his pace to around 140 kph he ll be a little more difficult to play, also given his height.

But i think we are better off bowling Mashrafee and one of Nazmul/Rubel. Shafiul and Shahadat are both very inconsistent.